Plans to liven up the 'zee?

I’m loving the Steel patch so far. My mind was blown at how radical a system a game development team can change in this stage of development. This really hyped me up for the potential this game has!

That being said, my main peeve for the game at the moment is how peculiarly lonely the unterzee happens to be. Here we have a world with a story describing the relationships of its civilization, but with little civilization actually being witnessed by the player.

What I mean by that is while traveling the dark waters of the Neath, the player virtually never encounters anything while sailing. The zee feels like it’s been basically completely abandoned save for the occasional pirate or beastie.

What I’d like to see are other ships actively pursuing a mission of their own, such as merchant ships, passenger ships, religious entities on a pilgrimage, whaling (monstering?) enterprises, derelicts, heck maybe even ghost ships haunting the waters. I understand that the zee is vast, dark and foreboding. But does it have to be so lifeless?
As it stands, I’m surprised the Khanate is still wary of me as an outsider, because I’m pretty much the only damn visitor they ever get. I’d like to feel like an entrepreneur that has to distinguish himself from a myriad of others instead of &quotOh look, it’s the guy with the boat again. Why does he keep coming here, anyway? What a creep.&quot

Regardless, I love how the game is coming along at the moment. I’m not worried about the quality a product FBG will deliver, as my purchase already feels like it was worth every penny.
edited by ashizen on 10/15/2014
edited by ashizen on 10/15/2014

Long story short, yes! Neutral vessels have always been on the roadmap - the roadmap itself is a bit up in the air at the moment because design plans were rearranged to accommodate Steel, but I very much expect we’ll still be seeing merchant vessels and other such ships populating the zee sooner or later.